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Tipsy turkeys: farmer feeds birds beer for flavor, size

TIPSY TURKEYS: in this photo taken Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013 turkeys get ready to belly up to the trough as farmer Joe Morette fills it with beer in Henniker, N.H. Morette has been adding beer to the daily diet for his birds saying it makes them fatter, more flavorful and juicer. Photo: Associated Press/Jim Cole

Joe Morette of Henniker, N.H., is raising about 50 Thanksgiving turkeys this year.

He’s been feeding his birds beer since 1993, when a turkey knocked over a can left near its fence and started drinking.

The way Morette sees it, beer bellies aren’t just a human phenomenon, and he insists the beer makes birds fatter, more flavorful and juicier.

He prefers to feed them lagers over light beer, but takes what he can get.

Carl Majewski with UNH Cooperative Extension says the beer doesn’t hurt the birds, and probably does affect their size and flavor to some degree. But juiciness is more a matter of how you cook the birds, not what they drink.